Superintendent's Blog

Here we go into the weekend--another rainy one. I shouldn’t complain because last weekend turned out to be very enjoyable for me, and I was grateful to have dodged wet weather.

Last weekend, while attending a family wedding in Truro, Massachusetts, I had the opportunity to visit the Highland Lighthouse, reported to be the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Cape Cod. I was able to climb the 69 steps to reach the top of the lighthouse and observe the beautifully preserved national seashore as well as the long arm of Provincetown, one of those cool places on the east coast where you can observe a sunset over water. 

The lighthouse, a  partner of the National Park Service, offers a museum shop and admittedly, I struggle to pass a retail space--especially one grounded in education--where I don’t make some purchase, so home I came with a book about sharks to share with my three-and-a-half-year-old grandson.

This was going to be his first foray into “informational text,” so I was pretty excited to present my new book, Hark! A Shark!: All About Sharks, to him on Sunday afternoon.

When we read together, he will often look at the pictures and ask, “Gigi, what is happening here?” And that's exactly how things played out on Sunday. We talked about pictures of whale sharks, tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, lemon sharks, and of course, great whites; how sharks have smooth skin if rubbed in one direction and rough “denticles” in the other; how shark skin is “clean” while whale skin is “gunky.”

Once we made our way through the book, my grandson wanted to know which shark was on the cover of the book. “Hmmm…” I paused. “Let’s see if there is a shark inside the book that looks like the one on the cover.” Having matched the sharks (we were presuming the shark on the cover was a lemon shark), we went to the index and, sure enough, the index helped us find yet another page that would picture a lemon shark and corroborate our thinking.

Lots of times when I’m reading with my grandson we analyze the pictures. For example, among our favorite books is Lisa Mantchev’s Strictly No Elephants, a sweet little story about friendship and inclusion. As we read the book, we notice that the boy and his elephant wear matching red scarves, and we talk about why the illustrator, Taeeun Yoo,  might have made that choice. The illustrations in this text are fabulous, by the way. My little guy and I particularly like reading the emotions of the characters, which are not always described in the text itself but rather, at times, must be inferred from the illustrations. Color, texture, facial expressions, and weather, allow us to wade into the shallow end of literary elements such as tone and mood. 

(Excerpted from Strictly No Elephants)

There are some children’s texts that would make no sense without the illustrations. Maybe you’re familiar with the Pigeon series by Mo Willems. Let’s take his book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. That text is just not decodable through words alone. Kids have to read the pigeon’s expressions to understand the bird’s frustrations at being told no, at being thwarted when he thinks he has a compelling argument that strikes out.

(Excerpted from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus)

Why is this important? Because as teachers of literacy, we need to both evolve with new science and adhere to what has historically been effective.

Reading pictures is incredibly effective. However, using a cueing system, where kids look at the pictures as compensation when they don’t understand the words, is not effective, and we do not teach reading that way in the Hopkinton Public Schools.

So back to my lighthouse as a metaphor. In 1996, noting the erosion of the coastline in North Truro, the National Parks and the Town of Truro knew the lighthouse was in danger. They hired highly specialized engineers to move the lighthouse 500 feet back off the shoreline; it took 19 days to do it. Over time, other historic preservationists repaired or replaced the exterior brick on the lighthouse, and made moisture and ventilation changes that would sustain the structure for many years to come.

The way Hopkinton educators approach teaching and learning is not much different. We watch for places of erosion, follow the science, bring in specialists, cling to what works, make moves to new curricula--all over time. We are proud of the literacy work we do with our students.

We hope that as you’re reading with your children (and our Hopkinton children), you will still use and read and analyze the pictures in ways that help your children become increasingly proficient in accessing text and knowing how to make meaning of it.

Stay dry this weekend.

Now in its 53rd year, Earth Day was celebrated this past Saturday, April 22nd. The first Earth Day, back in 1970, presented an unprecedented unified voice against the pollutants of industrialism, leaded gasoline consumption, pesticides, environmental deterioration and extinction of wildlife, human health impacts, and more. 

Just a kid at the time, my recollections are limited; to offer an example, I recall that Woodsy Owl made his debut in 1971, admonishing me to “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute.” 

I also remember the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raising gasoline prices and limiting supplies, resulting in panic and long lines at the pumps, which we could only access every other day—depending on whether your license plate ended in an odd or even number.

Although my memories are hazy—I was a youngster back then—what is important in my experience is that it marked the beginning of people considering the health of the planet. Science legislation emerged in the forms of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, the Clean Air Act in 1970, the Clean Water Act in 1972 and the Endangered Species Act in 1973, for example.

We began to think hard about our energy consumption, particularly our fuel consumption. “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies, springs to mind: “Up from the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea.” What we had revered and—to a great degree—taken for granted—crude oil—was suddenly in danger. Recognizing that changing our behaviors would help, we lowered our thermostats. We lowered the speed limit to 55. We bought more fuel-efficient cars. We turned to wind energy and solar.   

We were called to change then, and we are changing now. Changing—a word that is grammatically present continuous, emphasis on continuous. It’s never easy to disrupt our ways of living, our ways of knowing. People are comfort-seeking creatures of habit. Making sustainable, eco-friendly changes isn’t easy, but our schools are trying to help. 

For example, as more and more drivers are purchasing electric vehicles, the schools are looking to the installation of charging stations on our campuses. Currently, Marathon has four charging ports, and there will be charging stations at the new Elmwood replacement school. While there is no current capital budgeting for such change at the other schools, we anticipate that the charging stations cannot be far off. 

In order to mitigate harm to the Earth’s climate, the schools are encouraging families to use our transportation. Think about this: for every sixty cars that transport students to school, the District can run just one bus. A family that lives roughly three miles from school would drive over 2,100 extra miles annually just to bring their children back and forth daily. That would be roughly 84 gallons of gas (at 25 mpg), or nearly $300 in gas (at $3.50/gal), not to mention time, traffic, idling emissions in the pickup line, and pollution. For all students K-6, the school bus is free. For students in grades 7 through 12, there is a bus fee; however, recent Hopkinton policy change has lowered the threshold for financial support for families who need it. 

And while we pick up all of our students, regardless of the distance they live from their school, we encourage walking and biking (safely, of course) to school. As a quick aside, at Annual Town Meeting you’ll see warrant articles that support more sidewalks in town! Studies show that students who have exercised prior to the school day are better ready to learn.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gas vehicles take more than double the CO2 equivalent of hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and three times the amount of electric cars.

Accordingly, the schools are actively exploring electric buses, and although they seem a ways off, we can reflect on where we were in 1970 to where we are today and know that the District is committed to change, regardless of the pace at which change comes.

Coincidentally, tomorrow is the day when the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will vote to move the Elmwood Project into Schematic Design. Yes, this is an exciting milestone, and one that will come with an ask of the community to consider its environmental values. The project will have many options about sustainability of the building and the costs associated with that. Residents will need to weigh the higher long-term operating and environmental costs of traditional options against the higher up-front costs but lower operating costs of more sustainable options. The choices won’t be easy.

Choices and change.

Yes, Hopkinton, we are changing. With altered behaviors, we are disrupting our comforts and choosing to sustain our planet, our larger, shared home. There’s a lot to think about here because “bubbling crude…black gold…Texas tea” is a fading option. 

The first Earth Day in 1970 sparked change. Let’s carry the torch.